Silicon Accra: Another White Unicorn?

If you remember some years ago, there was a lot of buzz about Hope City. The buzz slowly faded and reality set in. Hope City was basically a mirage and just couldn’t become a reality.

Now there is a similar project on the horizon. The project has been dubbed Silicon Accra. It is based on Silicon Valley in California. Silicon Accra will supposedly be the home to several startups, multi-national organisations, and research institutions.

Silicon Accra is to be built in East Legon Hills. This idea is the brainchild of David Osei, formerly of Dropifi. David Osei is currently the CEO of Silicon Accra. He has worked on other companies namely SmarterTree, a company that links private African companies to investors in the Silicon Valley, and also spearheaded AfriKoin last year.

On paper, Silicon Accra sounds like a great idea but that’s the same thing we said about Hope City. David Osei is taking a different approach when it comes to Silicon Accra.

“We are not bearing the total cost that will bring up the city. We are open to companies that will bring up their designs; we vet them to suit our plan and they build,” says David Osei at a stakeholders meeting.

So the approach is different but will that lead to any interest? Organisations will have to submit their plans to Silicon Accra before final approval.

Silicon Accra is supposed to invest $10 million in developing the core infrastructure, including access roads, sustainable energy, water and fibre-optic lines for fast Internet service for the project.

Would companies and investors be willing to partner up and be involved with Silicon Accra especially since Hope City was a dud? Silicon Accra definitely has a lot of groundwork ahead of them.

The Silicon Accra project is expected to be completed by 2021.

Will Silicon Accra be successful or will it end up like Hope City? I’m rooting for it’s success but I’m cautiously optimistic.